Cotton-picking apparatus.



PATBNTED APR. 23, 1907.

A. P. ALBERT.

COTTON PIGKING APPARATUS.

V APPLIUATION FILED AUG. 4, 1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 851,475. PATENTED APR. 23, 1907 A. P. ALBERT. COTTON PIOKING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUGA, 1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

N0. 851.475. PATENTBD APR. 23, 1907.

A. P. ALBERT. A I COTTON PICKING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.4,1905.

s SHEETS-SHEET s.

"MMI-'MMIII UNITED STATES ALBERT P. ALBERT, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

COTTON-PICKING. APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented April 23, 1907.

Appuoaion ned Agua 4, 1 905. serai No. 272,107.

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT P. ALBERT, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana,

:have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cotton-Picking Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a cotton-picking apparatus.

The apparatus involves in its make-up a pneumatic .cotton-picking conduit, which may consist of a tube or pipe, and it is one of the objects of the invention to provide cated is provided; forshould the suction be not sufficient to separate the cotton from the boll the means in question will do so in a satisfactory, efficient manner. The conduit or pipe, to which I have referred, in practice will have directly associated therewith a fan, and the fan may be of any suitable character, adapted, when operated, to create suction through conduit or pipe for the purpose of drawing cotton thereinto and through the same.

Means of some suitable character will be.' provided for adapting the said conduit orf pipe to be supported from the person.. A cotton picker, therefore, caiiwear the pipe suspended from his body so as tofle'avehis hands wholly free, while the inlet eiidof the pipe can be so operated as to reach bollson the plant either near or at any point above the ground. Existing apparatus operating pneumatically possesses the objection that it takes up both ripe cotton and immature bolls, while by my device or apparatus I need pick only the ripe cotton, and this without possibility of injury to the growing plants or to the immature bolls.

In the accompanyingdrawings forming a part of this specification is illustrated a simple form of my invention and in which:

Figure 'lis a side elevation of a cottonpicking device, embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal sectional `volving my invention.

-type and needs no specific description.

view through the same. Fig. 3 is a detail view of the linlet end of the conduit. Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken through the fan casing. Fig.. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating two ofthe cotton-picking devices and suitable connections with a motor. Figs. 6 and 7 are diagrammatic views showing the mode of operation of the cotton-picking device and dii'l'erent types of motors for operating the fans of said picking devices.

Like characters refer to like parts throughout the several figures.

In Figs. l to Li of the drawings I show upon an enlarged scale a cotton-picking device in- Said cotton-picking device is denoted in a general way by 2 and may consist of a pipe or tube 3 preferably of metal and terminal portions 4 and 4 also of .metal or hard rubber or other suitable material. The inletend 4 of the pipe or tube may be outwardly flared or enlarged, as shown clearly in Figs. l and 2, to provide for the ready entrance thereto of the cotton.

In the form of the invention illustrated, a fan or other air exhausting or suction creating device is connected or directly supported by the conduit, the body or casing 5 of the fan intersecting the conduit as shown best in Fig. 2. The fan illustrated is of the ordinary One of the walls of the casing, as 6, may be made removable so that'ready access may be had to the fan in'order to make repairs thereto or to replace the same. The blades, 7, of the fan extend partly into the conduit or pipe and when the same are rotated create a suction therethrough. The interior of the conduit is smooth so as to offer no obstruction to the` passage of cotton therethrough. In the present instance the fan is shown as directly secured to the picking conduit or pipe in any convenient or preferred manner, and is supported from the person operating or using the device.

As stated hereinbefore cotton sometimes adheres to the boll, from different causes, so lirmly that suction alone fails to remove it, and in order to pick such adhering cotton I provide means, coacting with the suction, to positively engage and separate such cotton from the boll. The means employed for this purpose is located at the inlet end of the picking conduit 2 and consists of several fingers 8 located within the mouth or inlet end of the conduit. The fingers are rigidly se- IOO . from `the boll cured within the inlet end or conduit o'r pipe and are sharpened or pointed in order to take firm hold upon cotton drawn into the -conduit or pipe by suction, but which the .latter fails to detach from the boll. As the fingers, 8, are located within and turn back into the pipe, it will be evident that as the inlet end of the conduit is placed over a boll they will not tend to draw into the pipe any boll or surrounding foliage. They really present a skeleton or grid construction at the inlet end of the conduit which does not prevent the free entry of cotton by suction into saidconduit., In practice the inlet end of the conduit Will be placed-in proximity to a boll, and if the fan, 7, be in operation the suction produced thereby will draw the cotton into the conduit and will carry it entirely along said conduit tothe delivery end of the latter, where it can be discharged -into a bag suspended from the operatorf.

4any of the cotton thus drawn into the inlet end' of the pipe adheres to the boll and the suction is insui'licient to separate it there.- from, the projections or fingers grasp or engage the cotton and the operator by either moving the. conduit away from the boll, or

removin the boll from the .endB of the conduit by and, causes the projections or iingersy to pull or draw the adhering cotton from j the boll, and when the separation takes place the exhaust through the conduit will carry the cotton thus separated entirely through said conduit. In this action the pointed or sharp ends of the. projections or fingers grasp and take afirm hold upon the cotton, and to aid in the separating function" the projections are somewhat inwardly curvedso as to re-I tain their hold on the cotton.

The picking device may be supported' from i the person in any desired manner.v For this pur ose I have represented the fan casing, 5, as aving two loops, 9, through which a strap, 10, or its equivalent can be passed, 4as shown in Figs. 6 and '7 The strap can then eilaced about the shoulders or around the 0 Y the said picking device therefrom for use. In this way both hands of the operator are left fr/ee so that he can draw the bolls within operative proximity to the inlet end of the said picking device. In said Figs. 6 and 7 Iv have shown a bag, 11, as supported from the shoulders of the operator and the delivery end of the conduit or pipe is shown. as entered in the mouth of the bag to deliver cotton thereinto.

In Fig.- 5 I have shown a motor, 12', of the lhydrocarbon type. This is not necessary to describe in detail, as it is or may-'be of ordinary construction. In order to adapt such a motor to operate a plurality of picking. devises, its shaft, 13, is represented as -having a beveled gear, 14, Iin mesh With cooperating beveled gears, 15. The gears, 15, ,may be mouth of the .ularly adapted for conducting wires, 24, are led.

and buckled in place so as. to suspend' supported upon the frame ofthe motor, 12, in any desired manner, and thcy'are located at the inner terminal ends of shafts, 16. These shafts are of the flexible type and are ,shown as connected by. beveled gearings, 17, with th'e fan, 7. (See Figs. 1 and 4.) It therefore follows that whenthe motor, 12, is in action the fan or fans, 7, will, through the intermediate mechanism, be operated so as to exhaust through the conduit, 2, from the inlet toward the delivery end thereof. By reasonof the fact thatA the shafts, 1 6, are flexible, the picking devices 2, can be freely moved from place to place the fans forming a part'thereof, while the motor is in operation. v

In Fig. 6 is shown .a picking device carried by a person ando'pcrated by a motor, 12, through the connections described above.

In Fig. 7 I show a motor, 20, also of the gasoline type. This motor serves to operate a dynamo, 21, which can be utilized for operating several electric motors, lconvenient or desired points about t e cotton field. .In the present case the motor, 20, and the dynamo, 21, are portable, for which purpose they are represented as carried upon a vehicle, 23.

The organization'shown in Fig. 7 is particcotton fields which extend Connecting the dynamo and the motors are wires, 24. These wires may be-wound upon reels, 25, fastened upon the vehicle, 23; and the vehicle may also carry the motors, 22', when it is necessary to cover a new field of o eration. The motors, 22, are connected wit the respective picking devices, 2, as' by to the shaft hereinbefore other preferred manner. as 26, along the furrows, provided with superposed antifriction wheels, 27, between which the respective pairs of The stakes are driven into the space .betweengthe patches. running the wires between the guide wires in angular form,

over wide areas.

described, or in any I may drive stakes,

wheels, I dispose thel the inner branches thereof extending'longitudinally of such space and the outer branches transversely thereto. In this way I can s o dispose the wires thatthey cannot sweep down the free from t 1e picking devices to the Having described the invention, claim is:

1. A pneumatic cottonickirig device' comprising a conduit, and a p urality of fixed rejections or fingers forming a grid at the inlet end of said conduit'and adapted to engage the cotton. i

2. A pneumatic cotton-picking device comprising a conduit, .and a plurality of in-, turned projections or fingers rigidly secured at the inlet end of said conduit to form a grid and adapted to engage the. cotton.

motor.

a flexible shaft, 16, similarv lants as they would do were theyI without stopping as 22, lacedat IOO each stake being rio 3. A pneumatic cotton-picl ing` device comprising a conduit having a flaring inlet end, and a plurality of sharpened projections or lingersl rigidly secured at and projecting into said inlet end and forming a grid.

4. A pneumatic cottonpieking device comprising a manually supported conduit having its ends opening in opposite directions, means intermediate the ends of and supported b'y said conduit for creating an air suction 1 therethrough, said means comprising a fan the blades of which dip or project into and eX- tend partly across the conduit, whereby a spuee,is n'ovided for the uninterrupted passage of tlie cotton through the conduit.

A. pneumatic cotton picking device comprising n. cotton receiving conduit, means for supporting said conduit from the person with ite.l receiving end 'toward the front and its discharge end-towardthe rear oi the oper- I ator, a fan the blades of which dip into and l extend partly to produce u current of air therethrrmgh, a motor, and means for operating the fan from the motor.

6. A pneumatic cotton picking device lcomprising a ronduit, a suction fan support.- ed by and having its blades extending into and part I y acrosssaid conduit, means for supporting the conduit from the ierson, :i motor support-ed independently ol the conduit, and connecting means for operating the fan from the motor.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses. c

ALBERT P. ALBERT.

Witnesses JAMES L. B'RowN,

WiLLiAM 1I. MCGRANN.

across said conduit operating' 

